Lebaron (Day 75)

I've been burying myself under the covers of my bed the last few days due to how cold it is. As a result, I haven't been in the mood to do much of anything. I've been playing Pokemon Y infrequently, but otherwise I've spent my time watching LoL streams or Netflix. There are several amateur tournaments going on in the LoL scene right now, such as the NACL, ALCS, and the NESL pro series. I'm interested in how Quantic, ggLA, Complexity, and the new Curse lineup are doing.

It's fascinating following all of the pro and semi-pro LoL teams. I've never been much of a sports fan but I feel like I finally understand the fascination--because now there's a dedicated scene revolving around a game I enjoy, even though it's not an athletic one. I enjoy seeing the competition, the analysis, and even learning about the players themselves. For example, Complexity is a team of talented players. They also happen to be really nice, personable guys. This makes me like them quite a bit more and want them to succeed.

I'm hoping the LCS this season will be more exciting. Last split was complete domination by Cloud 9 (with only 3 losses if I recall correctly) and every other team just lagging behind. Velocity in particular seemed outclassed; they were unable to take a game from just about anyone but CLG. It's extremely unlikely they'll make it into the next split. I'm hoping we'll see some combination of Coast, Curse, ggLA, Quantic, and Complexity.

Coast has been dominating the challenger circuit recently so it's unlikely they won't make their way back into the LCS despite a somewhat mediocre showing last split. It's hard to say if they're shaping up or if they just outclass the amateur teams by a significant margin. Complexity is looking similarly strong and weren't able to make it into the LCS last split thanks to the now dominant Cloud 9. It's unlikely they'll face similarly tough competition this time so I expect to see them make it as well.

Curse, ggLA, and Quantic are question marks for me. Curse still hasn't had a lot of practice with their radically redefined roster, though individually each player is strong. Since Cop rejoined the roster he's been playing absolutely out of his mind. Quas is still relatively untested but his heavy damage Shen build was phenomenal against Velocity in their most recent match. Voyboy is now playing mid lane primarily, where he can exercise his mastery over assassins. His performance on more traditional mid laners is somewhat more questionable--his Orianna hasn't impressed me yet. IWillDominate seems good but somewhat inconsistent, much like his predecessor Saintvicious. Zekent, of course, is a very solid support player.

GGLA is a very interesting team as well. They seem to have a great deal of potential but I can't imagine they could compete against Complexity or Coast just yet. All of the players are individually strong, but they have issues with synergy and closing out games. Quantic has similar issues despite being showered with hype upon their reveal. They're the first team based in North America to have entirely Korean players, including Locodoco and Suno who have been on a couple successful Korean teams. Again, they too seem strong, but inconsistent.